Company News in Brief

Birkby, the rental company specialising in managed workspace, commercial vehicle hire and instalment credit, is raising about pounds 1m by placing 675,000 shares at 150p each, to fund expansion work. It is recommending an interim dividend of 1p.

FII, which makes, distributes and retails footwear and medical and laboratory equipment, made interim pre-tax profits of pounds 3.5m (pounds 3.2m) on external sales of pounds 41.3m (pounds 40.2m). Earnings were 15.8p, against 15.7p, and the interim dividend was up 0.5p at 6p.

Labtech, the manufacturer of microwave circuit boards and subsidiary of Aerospace Engineering, is creating up to 100 new jobs with a new 20,000sq ft factory.

SmithKline Beecham announced the appointment of Sir Christoper Hogg, chairman of Courtaulds and Reuters, to the board and the resignation as a non-executive director of Alain Gomez.

Channel Holdings, which has changed to a March year-end, made pre-tax profits of pounds 191,000 in its second set of interim figures, for the six months to 31 December 1992. It made an pounds 11,000 loss in the 12 months to 31 December 1991.

P-E International, the management consultancy and computer services group, has won a pounds 500,000 outsourcing contract from Standard Life, the largest mutual life assurance company in the EC, for developing and maintaining applications software.